Ibex Global shuts Bend call center, lays off 100 people, shifting others to work from home
Over 20-plus years, SW Hill Street office also operated as iSky, TRG; 'really sad news for our community'
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A Bend customer service call center that employed up to 850 people over the past 23 years laid off about 100 workers on Friday, shifted an undisclosed number of others to work from home and closed its two-story office on Southwest Hill Street.
NewsChannel 21 heard from Ibex Global employees who were notified in mid to late March of the impending closure and layoffs.
In an initial response last month to NewsChannel 21, Dan Burris, Ibex's senior director of public relations and communications, said:
"Ibex continually evaluates and refines its service delivery model at all sites to provide the optimal value to our clients and experience for our employees. This ongoing evaluation and adjustment process includes where and how services are being performed for clients in each geography."
"We are shifting to a work-at-home model in Bend and will maintain a presence in the area," Burris concluded, later adding: "Outside our usual staffing calibration based on specific client needs, we don’t expect significant employee turnover following this transition in Bend."
The workers lost their jobs due to the company's loss of a customer support contract with DirectTV, according to this memo they received, dated last Wednesday, two days before the layoffs and office closure were set to take effect.
Burris provided this additional company comment to NewsChannel 21 on Sunday:
"Ibex aligns staffing with specific client needs and continues to have a work-at-home presence in and around Bend. While we can’t provide a specific number of employees impacted out of respect for their privacy, approximately 100 employees were impacted. At the same time, we are looking for other opportunities across ibex, with the goal of hiring back a number of these employees."
Others posting on social media said they understood that about 200 Ibex employees were laid off and that they were given less than 30 days notice, with no severance pay nor tools and resources on what to do next.
Economic Development for Central Oregon's 2022 list of Bend's largest private and public employers showed Ibex ranking 12th, as it reported having 365 employees, the same number as in 2021.
The Bend facility opened as iSKY with 75 workers in 2000. Within two years, had boomed with the rise of high-tech to some 850 employees, later taking the parent company's name as TRG Customer Solutions and later Ibex Global.
Ibex said in early 2017, when it had 345 workers, that it was hiring over 400 more people, due to client growth, and in the fall of 2020 announced it was immediately hiring 300 customer service agents.
Bend Chamber CEO Katy Brooks called the Ibex layoffs and office closure "really sad news for our community, and especially those who worked there. We did not receive any kind of heads up that this was coming."
